Casting Shadows

Chapter 16

Chapter 16 (Olivia's POV)

I run my hands through his hair as we have our daily make out session.  Bronx and I have become very close in the past nine months, but nobody knows that we are in a sexual relationship except for Saint. The two brothers tell each other everything.  Although I'm sure Pete at least suspects something is going on.  After all, his demonic gift is to literally feel the emotion that another is experiencing.  Bronx leans me against the brick, ally wall and continues to press his lips against my own.  He looks a lot like a younger version of his father, except with blond hair.  He's been keeping me sane since the escape.

Patrick has barely spoken with me, but I haven't really tried to initiate a conversation.  We avoid eye contact and do everything we can to keep a distance from each other.  In fact, our behavior was obvious enough for Bronx to have asked me about it.  Him and his brother are the only ones who know about my blood relationship with Patrick.  I told them as much of the story as I know myself, even though I do not have much knowledge of it at all.  The only person who seems to know all of it is Gerard. However, everybody is aware that I am a hybrid. It is not something that can easily be hidden because of the welcoming vibe angel's tend to give off.

"We should get back to the others," Bronx says after pulling away from me, both of our breathing heavy.

We separate from each other and make our way back to the group. We have all been traveling together, switching locations every couple of weeks in order to stay unfound. We mainly stay on the inner sides of the edges of the dimension. Right now, our current residency is in an abandoned shop.

"We've let him go too far," I hear Pete say as we enter the store.

"If you can come up with a plan, my hears have been wide open for the past nine months," Brendon snaps.

All of us have failed to make any sort of plan that could possibly work. Basically, in the last nine months the Black Parade has been fully taking power, creating an autocracy, while we sit and argue. The former leaders have a very difficult time being in the same room as each other and none of them will mature enough to tolerate the others.

"Someone needs to get Patrick to snap out of his dazed state and actually focus," Pete says.  "Someone meaning you, Brendon."

Patrick has been really out of it since the escape.  He barely speaks and his mind always seems to be in another place.  I catch him staring at nothing, deep in thought a lot, but he never shares what he is thinking.  He better be coming up with a brilliant plan in that brain of his.

"He's been on the roof doing nothing all day.  I'll go talk to him," Brendon says as he exits the dusty store to find his friend.  They've become closer, but not too much considering Patrick's lack of interaction with everyone.  I can only imagine how Brendon plans on talking to the other former leader.  Neither of them have very much sympathy, so I would think they will end up in an argument.

Pete, Saint, Bronx, and I remain in the store.  The other leader's family members are off gathering our needed food supply.  We take turns scavenging for scraps or robbing markets.  There's no other way for us to survive other than to ask someone for help.  However, we cannot risk asking the wrong people.  It surprises me how many supporters there are of the Black Parade.

"Dad, are we all going to die?" Saint asks in a sad tone.

"Of course not," his father replies. Everyone knows he can't say that for certain, but living with a little hope is better than none at all.

The three of us sit and do what all of us have been doing since the escape, talk in circles about a plan, getting nowhere.  Everything we come up with has an obvious flaw in it that Gerard would easily exploit.